Jared ‘Big Baby’ Anderson showcased his tantalising heavyweight potential with another impressive victory over Jerry Forrest at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
Anderson maintained his perfect pro record – 13-0 with every single win inside distance – on the Teofimo Lopez vs Sandor Martin undercard at Hulu Theater.
The budding Bob Arum/Top Rank superstar overwhelmed the durable Forrest (now 26-6-2) to race to a stoppage success inside two rounds.
Forrest had earned hard-fought draws vs two more world heavyweight title hopefuls Michael Hunter and Zhilei Zhang in 2021, and this looked like a good barometer of where the 23-year-old Anderson now stands in the heavyweight pecking order. The answer was very positive.
Anderson blasts away in wild Round 1
Forrest came out swinging and did land some nice shots in the early going with Anderson open to counters. But the 34-year-old then spent the second half of Round 1 almost entirely on the ropes in a neutral corner as Jared unleashed a sustained barrage of punches.
Jerry somehow made it out of that torrid opening session but the writing was on the wall. He was already in trouble and it would only be a matter of time before the end came.
Anderson was more circumspect but picked his punches better than that opening round, and a beautiful overhand right early in the second had Forrest on wobbly legs.
Jared closes the show
Another massive right followed by a right to the top of the head was enough to convince referee David Fields to wave it off.
Now Anderson and his camp can look forward to 2023 with significant excitement and a potential title shot at some stage in the future. In the immediate aftermath he called out the likes of Filip Hrgovic, Michael Hunter, Daniel Dubois and others who are knocking at the heavyweight door.
‘Big Baby’ landed 39 power punches in Round 1 alone, the most by a heavyweight in 2022. It was also the first stoppage loss in more than nine years for Forrest.